Nov. 26, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
857 
The Wyoming Mixup. 
Ishawooa, Wyo., Nov. 16. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: I wish to call your attention and that 
of your readers to the unfortunate wording of 
certain of the Wyoming game laws. They read 
as follows: 
Moose and Antelope Protected. —Section 25. 
It shall be unlawful for any person or persons 
to kill any antelope until the open season for 
other game animals in 1915, when only one ante¬ 
lope may be kil'ed by any person hunting legally, 
or to kill any moose, elk or mountain sheep until 
the open season for other game animals, in 1912, 
when only one male moose may be killed by any 
person hunting legally, or to kill any elk or 
mountain sheep in any part of this State except 
in Fremont county, Vinta county, Carbon county 
Any person convicted, etc., etc., etc. 
By this Section 26 the open season in each 
year is of course clearly indicated—Sept. 25 to 
Nov. 30—and apparently the words (each year) 
on line four of this section throw open all the 
game, save moose, to hunters. 
But it is a bad piece of drafting on somebody’s 
part, and \yyoming has lost hundreds of dollars 
this season through hunters failing to reconcile 
these two sections. I know personally of two 
Eastern parties who judged there was a close 
season on all game in Wyoming and changed 
their plans accordingly. 
It is of course too late in the season for this 
letter to do any good, but as the same game 
laws will probably be promulgated for 1911, your 
paper may be able to give timely warning and 
advise to those who, contemplating a shooting 
Destruction and Protection. 
From advance sheets of “American Game Bird Shooting.” 
Where game birds are left to look out for 
themselves civilized man and the conditions he 
brings with him constitute their most destruc¬ 
tive enemy. It is not so much the number of 
birds killed by man as the changes which he 
works in the land that affect the birds and often 
make life impossible for them. Of these 
changes, the most important is the clearing up 
and cultivation of woodland—the cutting down 
of forests and the draining of swamps. Most 
wild creatures require cover to afford them 
shelter from their enemies, while the farmer 
wishes the ground to be free from all cover 
except that which his crops afford, and these 
crops are standing for a few months only. 
NORTH CAROLINA BANKER PONIES BEING DRIVEN INTO ONE OF THE PENS. 
From a copyrighted photograph by M. B. Gowdy. 
and that part of Big Horn county west of the 
Big Horn River until the open season on game 
ariima’s in 1915. Any person convicted of viola¬ 
tion of the provisions of this section shall be 
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be 
punished by a fine of not less than $100 nor 
more than $300, or by imprisonment in the county 
jail for not less than thirty days nor more than 
six months, or by both such fine and imprison¬ 
ment. 
The ambiguity of this section is appalling. If 
you cut out all the legislative phraseology, repe¬ 
titions and guide yourself by the punctuation 
marks, it would certainly appear to the layman 
as if there were a close season on all game ani¬ 
mals until 1912. Between 1912 and 1913 opinions 
differ as to what game is actually protected, but 
one and all agree that the section is distressingly 
confusing. Now comes Section 26. 
Open Season for Game Animals. —Section 25. 
It shall be unlawful for any person or persons 
to hunt, pursue or kill any e"k, deer or mountain 
sheep except from Sept. 25 to Nov. 30 of each 
year; provided, that male mountain sheep only 
shall be permitted to be killed. 
trip in Wyoming, are confused by such conflict¬ 
ing statements. John Law Dallam. 
[This hopelessly mixed up law was called at¬ 
tention to in Forest and Stream in May, 1909, 
but as the Legislature would not meet until 1911, 
nothing could be done. The State authorities, 
regarding the presumed intent rather than its 
contradictory language, have permitted hunting, 
disregarding Section 25. —Editor.] 
Grouse Enemies. 
New York City, Nov. 18. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: 1 have just read E. P. Robinson’s rea¬ 
sons for the scarcity „of young grouse, and in 
support of same can state that two years ago 
I hunted a couple of days with a guide at Ulster 
Heights, N. Y., and was told by him that the 
fall before there were plenty of old birds left 
over, and that spring there were a lot of young 
birds hatched, but then they seemed suddenly 
to be wiped out, and he blamed it on the ticks, 
as he had come across a young bird lying in a 
road just breathing his last, which was litera ly 
covered about the throat and head with ticks. 
O. D. Thees. 
Without cover, the quail, the wild turkey, the 
grouse and the Woodcock cannot exist. Wild 
birds depend for safety largely on their pro¬ 
tective coloring, which makes it easy for them 
to escape notice in their chosen haunts, and 0:1 
their habit of flying—on the approach of 
danger—to refuges where they may hide. But 
if forest and brush are cut away the partridge 
and the quail have no places in which to seek 
safety; if the tall grass of prairie sloughs and 
ravines is mowed and the soil plowed up, the 
prairie chicken is without place of concealment; 
if the swamp is drained and the alders, birches 
and spice wood that grow in it are cut down, 
the woodcock no longer has a home. 
While all these changes are going on, gun¬ 
ners are becoming more numerous. With 
the settling up of the country there is an in¬ 
creasing demand for the flesh of game, and. be¬ 
tween the attacks of man, the destruction Of 
their old homes and the ravages of predatory 
birds and mammals, in many regions the game 
birds have been almost exterminated. 
Among their natural enemies are all the car- 
(Continued on />age 874.) 
